Stay With Me
by playadeslosers
Summary: Comets and meteors are pretty to see when they're far away, but not so much close-up. [Implied character death/no gore.]


No electricity. Zoey didn't know what she had expected, but music would have been nice. It would have calmed her down. She'd had on one of her favorite records moments before (a vinyl she'd gotten her freshman year of high school), but the power outage had nixed that. Since the refrigerator was off, too, she was sipping orange juice out of the jug through a curly pink straw. Her hands weren't trustworthy enough to hold an open glass just then. Brown eyes were fixed outside, watching her familiar front yard. She'd wanted to come back home, be with her parents for a little while. She figured that's what Mike had wanted too, but hadn't anticipated not even getting a call. The phone towers were down, of course.

Her eyes glazed over for a minute as she looked at the sky. It was dark. Nighttime. Earlier, she'd had dessert for dinner with her parents. Her dad had flung pistachio ice cream at her mom, who had laughed and said it was just like their second date. Then came a pause, and she'd almost cried. Both Zoey and her mom. Cake was next, though, and it brought the mood back up as much as it could.

"Zoey!" Her mom's voice snapped her out of her trance, and she rubbed her arm across her eyes quickly, standing and going to her door. "Yeah?" She called back, swallowing thickly. "There's someone here for you, honey." Her heart jumped into her throat as she rushed over to the top of the stairs, looking down towards the front door. Zoey immediately burst into tears, laughing at the same time. Her boyfriend came up the stairs quicker than she could come down them, since he took them two at a time. Thank god for boys with long legs.

She didn't even wait to him to greet her before wrapping her arms around him as tightly as she could. "I thought I was never gonna see you again," She whispered, looking up at him. "And that thought just killed me. I'm so happy you're here." And all he replied with was a nod, a thick swallow, and: "I'm happy I'm here, too."

They went back into her room, each sitting on the side of her bed, arms around each other tightly. Her parents had each other for this time, she just wanted him. Sitting turned into lying down, but it wasn't sexual. Just facing each other, looking at each other. "I want to memorize every part of you." Tears pooled on her pillow, and he rubbed them away.

He looked a little fuzzy for a second, eyes unfocused. "Mike?" She asked anxiously, rubbing his cheek with her thumb. "Mike, please. Stay with me. Please stay with me, it's not much longer…" He looked at her, eyes locking into a state of fear for a second. "I don't want to be alone, Mike. I need you here. I need _you_ here with me. Right now." She swallowed and nodded a little bit, moving closer to him and rubbing his back. Sometimes he had panic attacks associated with his switching, and sometimes it helped. "Just stay with me."

A loud noise came from all around, rattling the windows. It sounded like an explosion, but she couldn't be sure. "Mike, are you here?" She asked quietly, looking at him. Her eyes closed for a few seconds, but she felt his hand go to her ear, slipping something into it. When she reached up to adjust it, she realized it was the bud to an iPod. A lump formed in her throat as music started playing quietly. It was a mixed track, with pieces of her favorite songs, the songs they'd decided were theirs, his favorites, too. She didn't try to stop her sobbing, and his fingers curled her dyed hair around her ear.

She looked at him, eyes wide open as she reached for the earbud that he had, pulling it out shakily. "I love you so much. I love you so much; you're my favorite person in the whole —" Little whimpers and sobs punctuated her words, and another explosion noise cut off her sentence, louder than before. The music in her right ear meant it was quieter for her, but Mike looked visibly shaken as he wiped away her tears, some of his own forming and running down his tanned cheeks. "In the whole what?" He prompted. "The whole world." She said back, but he had to read her lips from the violent shaking and rocking of the house — the street — the entire world. He knew what she said, though, as she watched him, horrified. "Just focus on me," He shouted over the noise. "Just listen to the music and look at me." He scrambled to put his earbud back in to be more with her. Their eyes locked as the explosions got closer together, and it felt like an earthquake. "Stay with me, Zoey!" He pleaded frantically, holding her face in his hands now. She nodded furiously, feeling bruises form on her skin from the intensity of the shaking. A bright light came in through her window.

"I'm right here."


End file.
